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night, when the rest of the gang had arrived and checked into the hotel, we all headed to the Haight for pizza. It was a noisy crowd that got even rowdier as the beer flowed and the pizza pies stacked up on the four tables we all occupied. Shelby gravitated toward Jace and me, her Fierce family she felt truly safest around. She turned to Jace. “How did it go with Titanium and Lace?” she asked.
    Jace shrugged. “I still haven’t decided,” he answered.
    She tackled another piece of pesto pizza. “What are you waiting for? I’d be all over that in a heartbeat,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite stores. I love their mod pieces the best.”
    “Maybe I should give them your name instead,” he joked, but Shelby’s face fell.
    “ They wouldn’t use me. I’m not really getting endorsements,” she said as she loaded her slice with parmesan cheese. “Just local stuff around Nashville. I thought coming in third would be a bigger opportunity, but you and Jordi seem to have the biggest draw.”
    Randy nodded. “If it weren’t for DIB, I’d probably still have to hustle just to wring as much as I could out of my eighth place finish, too. Milo got a Broadway show and Lavender snagged a Las Vegas review, but the rest of us faded to black the minute the final credits rolled.”
    “I don’t know how big of a draw I have,” I told her. “I couldn’t get a gig with Titanium and Lace because they don’t make my size.” Suddenly, a light bulb appeared over my head. I turned to Jace. “Why don’t you suggest Shelby to T&L?”
    Her eyes widened as she stared at us. “Are you kidding?”
    I shook my head. “They want him to do couple spreads. Why not two of the top three Fierce contestants? That way you’ll get your name and face out there so people won’t forget you.”
    “Strike while the iron is hot,” Jace agreed , parroting my advice to him. He glanced over at me to see if I was truly OK with the idea, but I thought it was a perfect way for everyone to get exposure. Why let some nameless model ride Jace’s coattails, when Shelby had worked hard to shape her brand over the past year?
    “If you’re sure,” she said, her big, blue eyes wide and hopeful as she stared up at Jace. He hesitated a minute or so before he gave her a tender smile. “Sure. I’ll send them a message tonight.”
    My gut tightened and I immediately second-guessed suggesting her, especially since Titanium and Lace was all over it by morning. They loved the idea of using two finalists from the show, and I could imagine they were doing somersaults in their offices that they got two of the most picture perfect ones of the bunch. They set their plan into motion so that everything could be set up for a preliminary photo spread by Friday morning. Shelby was a chatty, little ball of an excitement as we cruised around the Bay at sunset on a luxury cruising boat that Thursday night.
    She kept asking Jace his opinion on how they should pose and what she should wear, and he patiently indulged her. I gritted my teeth and tried to tune it out as we st ood near the railing. Instead I focused on the majestic skyline of San Francisco coming to life with a thousand twinkling lights that seemed to skip across the rippling water to reach us.
    “ She’s just excited ,” I kept telling myself. “ She’s not being possessive, she’s understandably enthusiastic. Besides. This was my idea .”
    She shivered against the chilly night air, clutching her big coat around her tiny shoulders. She talked until her teeth clattered, and Jace – gentleman that he was – decided to wrap one of his big arms around her quaking shoulders to provide extra warmth.
    She gave him a grateful smile that only provoked the green-eyed monster deep inside me. I knew she loved him, why had I thrust her at him like a big, raw steak to a starving lion?
    I stole a glance at him through the corner of my eye. He seemed perfectly content to hold her in his arm as we watched the